Halo Fanon:The Weekly
The Weekly is a community project in the form of a series of micro-fiction contests, inspired by the discontinued Community Writing Competitions on Halo Waypoint. Each week, users can challenge themselves to write a short prose response to a prompt chosen at the start of the week by the competition's judge. At the week's end, the judge selects a winner to receive a shiny new Weekly Winner eraicon on their entry's page, and the entry will then be displayed on Recent Changes for the next week for all to easily see and read. The project was conceived in response to a long-standing downturn in prose writing on the site, in hopes of encouraging more prose by presenting a painless, easily-attainable length as a target instead of a hopelessly-long novel length. The ideas the writers incorporate to hone their craft under such constraints might then become the seeds for events their own characters go through, or even be worked into whole other long stories. __TOC__ How To Participate At the beginning of each week, a new prompt will be posted on this page, for users to write in response to. Working with in the length and topic restraints (which could have to do with the theme, or subject, or writing style like "only dialogue"), users then write their response and create a new page on which to post it. Remember to include a Writer Template (" ") at the top and categorize it "The Weekly" ("Category:The Weekly") at the bottom. A paragraph at the top can be added to introduce the piece and context for it without going towards the word count, so long as there's a horizontal line ("----") between to make set them apart distinctly. Unless specified otherwise, the word length is 1000 words, and the maximum stories you can submit per entry is two. It is frowned upon to use two entries to create a longer entry, as each should be a stand-alone piece. Then, simply add a link to your entry's page in the scrollbox for the appropriate week for it to be counted. The judge ( , currently) will then read the entries, between the following Monday-Wednesday depending on availability, and pick a winner for the week. Bear in mind, the judge's decision may be based on subjective judgements, but good spelling, grammar, and punctuation go a long way towards impressing by presenting a professional and easy-to-read appearance. Winners will then be given a unique Weekly Winner eraicon and displayed on the Recent Changes page. Users can also visit the talk page to suggest prompts and topics for future weeks. Weekly Challenges Week 121: Sympathy for Revenge Prompt: Revenge is probably one of the most common themes in any media format. A driving force behind many character's motivations, its an emotion most of us can sympathise with. While its common to see the beginning of this sequence of events, and the ending of it, rarely do we get to see the emotional and physical toil it takes on a person, whether they're finding the motivation to keep going with their revenge, or how they go on with their life when it is over and done with. As the usual, roughly 1000 words. Start Date: January 19, 2018 End Date: January 27, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *A Chance by }} |-| Feedback= *Best Served by **This was a really great read from start to finish. Aside from the odd janky sentence here and there, from a technical perspective it was great. The descriptive nature of the story sets every scene, as it goes, so even with jumps in the narrative, we still get a crystal clear picture of each scene as it happens, from the bombing, to their revenge, to boot camp, to the diner, and beyond. Its also got a great, and very fresh take on the subject. We often see Insurrectionists swearing vengeance on the UNSC, or humans swearing vengeance on the Covenant, but so rarely do we get a revenge narrative aimed at the Insurrection. Even the formatting used helps to drive the narrative, using text formatting to show the jump between past and present. Even if it creeps a bit far over the (roughly) 1000 word limit, I think its well deserving of this week's winner. *A Chance by **As expected, a good read from D042 that takes us directly into the psyche of Cody, through a simultaneous look of the physical aspects of his revenge, and the psychological drive. Its a great spin on the revenge theme, where his driving force isn't simple bloody minded revenge, but an ever present fear of seeing his loved ones without seeing them avenged. Its a fresh spin on the revenge theme that certainly separates it from the normal revenge schlock, and was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to see for this Weekly. My main feedback would be that, and I fall prey to this myself, is that the characters are introduced by name, and little beyond. Even with familiarity, some good descriptors to set the scene, and set the character works wonders to transplant the reader. Week 122: Round the Twist Prompt: Weird stuff happens. Its a fact of life. You've probably seen something weird yourself. But what happens when that weird gets real, and real threatening? Halo is no stranger to the weird either. The otherworldly horror of the Flood, Gravemind projecting itself into your thoughts, or even the stranger threads in the Forerunner trilogy, as the Lovecraftian horror of the Precursor's plan comes to fruition, even costing the sanity of some characters. From our own users, we've seen the strange, bordering on supernatural, like our Halloween tales, The Silent Garden, and beyond. Some of this inspiration has been drawn from SCP - Secure, Contain, Protect, an urban fantasy dealing with the strange, and paranormal. Some of it has also been taken from the weird hellscape that is late 80s early 90s children's TV too. So, in roughly 1000 words, I'd like to see characters reacting to the strange, the odd, the bizarre, or downright horrifying. Whether this is a perfectly normal event that's been skewed to seem paranormal, a paranormal event with a logical explanation, or strange, with no explanation, anything goes for this. Start Date: January 27, 2018 End Date: February 3, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *Comeuppance by }} |-| Feedback= *Never Odd Or Even by **Slipspace drives are weird. And I like that we get to see one being weird. Its got that feeling of existential space terror that really gets your hairs on end, knowing that there's no escape, from something that is totally unexplainable. And the cyclic ending, that brings us back to the beginning of the story almost perfectly, is a great ending and beginning, a good ouroboros twist. Its aa really deserving winner, and really encapsulates what I imagined for this Weeks entry. *Comeuppance by **So this was a great story to read. The story is well paced, it really takes us through a tale of vengeance with a really satisfying conclusion. Great efforts have been taken by the writer to guide the reader to the conclusion, and connect the dots along with Teka. I really liked the the overall 'three act' layout to, to take us through the stages of vengeance. However, because its over 2000 words, and not really on subject (might have been better for last week!), I'm going to have to take it out of the running. Week 123: Tanks, forward! Prompt: Tank beats Ghost! Tank beats Hunter! Tank beats MEXT! Tank beats everything! Tanks are, undeniably, great to play with, and terrifying to fight against. Your task these week is roughly 1000 words detailing a story about tanks. Commanding tanks, fighting against tanks, tank on tank action, heck, even repairing tanks. Give me something tank centric, and you've got a week to do it. Armoured fighting vehicles only. Start Date: February 3, 2018 End Date: February 9, 2019 Entries= *Operation: Horseshoe by *No Rest for the Weary by *Remembrances by *New Dawn by *'A Well-Oiled Machine by - Winner' *Third Battle of El Alamein by }} |-| Feedback= *Contact, Operation: Horseshoe, No Rest for the Weary, Remembrances, and New Dawn by **So, you've continued to show off your really strong world building, and produced not one, but five works demonstrating it. The individual stories vary from traditional to novel in approach to the topic, and each fit the topic too. My only complaint would be the use of the weekly to submit a story in five parts, rather than five individual stories. *'A Well-Oiled Machine by - Winner' **There's something really satisfying and evocative about three Spartans working together to make a tank work. Its a really great microcosm of shenanigans, bullshit, and a good old charge at the end, to create a story that really gives us a fantastic take on the topic. An enjoyable read, that keeps us withit from start to finish, and works great as its own little self contained episode. *Third Battle of El Alamein by **So, with this, the story does stray a little from the topic. Tanks are second fiddle in the story, and sort of exist as passing mentions, or in the distance. While there's some good dialogue, it sort of serves as a build up to something that starts and ends very quick. Remember that its a short story contest, building your story as a self contained short story would yield better results, rather than compacting a larger event. Week 124: Step out of your shell Prompt: Spartans are undoubtedly the stars of Halo. All but one of the game features them as central protagonists, and alone or together, they're a big draw of the universe. But sometimes, I've seen Spartans play second fiddle to the armour they inhabit. As iconic as MJOLNIR is, I'm looking for stories that take Spartans out of their armour, and leaves them naked to the dangers of the universe. Lets put the super back in super soldier, and see Spartans out of armour (MJOLNIR, and SPI, anything that needs batteries), and fighting tooth and nail. Start Date: February 9, 2018 End Date: February 17, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *Endgames by *Rival by *Ambush on Ihsir by }} |-| Feedback= *Warm Welcome by **A great read, that perfectly captured the spirit of this Prompt. A single spartan, with just his senses, training, experience, and augmentations. Great pacing from start to end, and an exciting description of combat that flows well from start to finish. It really shows off the mentality and strength of Spartans, even without their armour, and as a bonus I got to read about some BDS mooks job super hard. *Endgames by **While Endgames is very mcuh a story written to your strengths, I feel it drags on a little bit. In the short, punchy world of the weekly, the story feels a little slower and sedate, and aside from the energetic final portion, a lot of it carried on with the Chess set as the central element, which sort of derails the objective of the prompt. *Rival by **Compared to your other entry, I feel this one might be a little lacking. While the intro is good, and strong, the fight with it is the direct opposite of your previous entry. It is a little confusing, and hard to follow, and I think the attempts to be deliberately vague with their identity worked against you. Otherwise, the story was very visceral, especially in the final stages, really gave oomph to the fight. *Ambush on Ihsir by **So, I would be thinking this is probably your first entry? As your first attempt at a weekly, its an impressive effort. Your writing sets the tone, and takes us to the events with some great descriptors to highlight exactly what is happening and where. Combat was good to follow, and gave us a sense for the battle, which is sometimes tricky to pull off. A few things to bring up though, was some of the sentence structure seemed a bit off, like "All of time got seemed to get even slower from his point of view", as well the story had some pacing issues. It felt like efforts were made to cut it to size, leading to a few moments where some changes, like the armour explodes, or Reff shoots the ODST, and it seems to carry on without really responding to that. It seems like it was cut down to make the length. With this, you only have a short prose, and it might have been better to focus only on the first fight and omit the second, or combine first and last to make a more satisfying story. Otherwise, its a great first attempt, and you've got the makings of a good writer. Week 125: Journey and Salvation Prompt: Last few weeks have been UNSC heavy. Lets get some spangly purple space aliens in here. You can write about any member of the Covenant, of any rank. The only rule is that it has to take place during the final Age of the Covenant, the Age of Reclamation. Your timeline is from Truth, Regret, and Mercy ascending to their thrones, to the end of the war. Start Date: February 17, 2018 End Date: February 24, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *Eye for an Eye, Plus Some by }} |-| Feedback= *Prey by **Another really solid performance. The story sets a great dichotomy between 'Zafamee's life on Sanghelios, and his role as a warrior, with great scene setting that's come to mark your stories, and the short and brutal combat between him and four luckless UNSC soldiers is a great battle to read. *Eye for an Eye, Plus Some by **I think this is your first entry? In which case its an entry to be proud of. You've set a good idea for it, that doesn't follow normal expectations for this story in a good way. Its enjoyable to read, and transports us to the battle. Some things of note, would be the formatting is a little off, and some extra paragraph breaks would make it a little easier to read, and some of the descriptive text falls a little flat, like for instance descriptors used for the Spirit. Some of the sentence structure is a little confusing, for instance the sentence about dropping off warriors may have better served to be broken into smaller ones. One of the key ones, that everyone does on their first go, is the story pacing. The key to short stories is creating stories to the size, and because of this it feels like the ending is sudden and unintended, like you hit your word limit there. Week 126: Slings and Arrows Prompt: Time for something a little different. Some of you may already be familiar with Halo Fanon:Mythic Requisitions, where you can add REQ weapons that fit with the style of weapon you'd find in Warzone. Your challenge these week is to add a REQ item to this article. For this, you need a name, rank, REQ level, a quote (no more than ten words) and a description that gives a brief overview of the item's role, and a brief description of it's function (no more than 100 words). It must be a newly added weapon or vehicle. Best of luck! Start Date: February 24, 2018 End Date: March 3rd, 2019 Entries= *Crimson & Cyan by *Eye of T'Vao by *'Hornet's Nest by - Winner' *Wispguard by }} |-| Feedback= Week 127: Lets get tactical Prompt: After a weekend of rediscovering the joys, and miseries of Rainbow 6: Siege, I wondered how this kind of battle, a small scale operation between terrorists and counter-terrorists, could be applied to the Halo universe. We've briefly seen similar things in Contact Harvest, and a few other pieces of Halo media, but I'd really like to see a user's take on it. You've got 2000 words to depict a short, brutal siege between UNSC special forces and Insurrectionists over hostages, or a bomb, intelligence or something similar, fought over single building/compound/something of similar size. Best of luck! Start Date: March 3rd, 2018 End Date: March 10th, 2019 Entries= *'Scoped by - Winner' *Knock, Knock by }} |-| Feedback= *Keep Moving by **A good solid outing from yourself. A tense fight through a rebel compound, and into the bunker. The fighting was easy to follow, the concept simple but well executed, and with a good and solid ending. The only improvement I would perhaps suggesting is a greater use of descriptors. There was a lot left to our imagination. *'Scoped by - Winner' **A really novel approach, taking us through a hostage crisis step by step. The moment it all comes together is a really satisfying ending. My only suggestion would be that the shifts of POV were a little jarring. Using some clever formatting might have made them a little easier, like the moments it shifts to the sniper, using italics. *Knock, Knock by **So, a excellent outing from yourself. My strongest recommendation with this is simplifying and streamlining the story. You might have done better by focusing in on one of the fireteams on their own, rather than spreading yourself out. The result is several streams of less memorable action. Week 128: It belongs in a museum! Prompt: There's a trope on this wiki. Its not a trope I particularly like. The idea of somebody carrying some ridiculous antique revolver/M4/family Katana, kinda sits uneasy with me. But what if it could be done right? Some old, antiquated piece of kit being used to settle a dispute, to escape, to kill an enemy. An old hunting rifle, a sawn off shotgun, a big chunky revolver, even something antiquated in a contemporary setting, like an old out of date ship, a ancient M6 pistol (Its been around for a century!) or even a set of Mk 4 MJOLNIR used after the Great War has ended. Also, must adhere to canon. 1000 words, have fun! Start Date: March 11th, 2018 End Date: March 16th, 2019 Entries= *Laconic by *'The Late Summer Hunt by - Winner' }} |-| Feedback= *Legacies by **A great read that set us in the desperation of the collapse of a colony following a Covenant attack, and with great pacing. But, your story was 700 words over the limit, so I'mma have to disqualify this entry. *Laconic by **Its great to see improvement in your work, where you're getting better at setting the scene, and creating a more engaging narrative, and creating a narrative that better fits the Weekly limits. The narrative is pretty inventive, starting with a the present, a flash back that then brings us back to the present. Some of the sentence structure early on is a little janky, so its a little hard to follow and I had to reread it a few times to quite get what was happening. I think that may be a consequence of cutting the story length to fit. *The Late Summer Hunt by **So, a great read that really hit the theme I had in mind. Old meets new as Elena combines traditional tools with new tech in a great read. It really shows that a lot of effort has been put in, with a lot of the details of the dog being spot on for real life. This level of research, and the general level of polish to the writing, really earns its spot as this week's winner. Week 129: Goliath, meet David Prompt: A tale as old as time. The little guy takes on the big guy and wins. Against all odds, they scrape a victory against a seemingly undefeatable enemy. Maybe its because I've been watching Godzilla films non-stop for several weeks, but the story really speaks to me. I want a 2000 word story where the 'little guy' takes on the 'big guy' and wins. Maybe a Frigate winning a duel against a battlecruiser, a human defeating a Brute, a Grunt defeating a Spartan. A one on one fight where the victor is significantly smaller and weaker than the loser. Start Date: March 18th, 2018 End Date: March 24th, 2019 Entries= *'Huntress by - Winner' }} |-| Feedback= Week 130: Improvise. Adapt. Hopefully don't die Prompt: Sometimes shit breaks. And sometimes its important stuff. The engine, the firing mechanism, the macguffin that will win the day, you name it. And fixing that all important device requires some inventive thinking, whether that's a paper clip in the right place, holding it together with bubblegum, shutting down life destroying apocalypse weapons with just your shields, or infecting the alien mothership with a Virus from a Apple Powerbook. In 1000 words I want your characters to encounter a malfunction that totally derails their plans, or otherwise places them in jeopardy, and they have to get creative to fix it. Start Date: March 25th, 2019 End Date: April 1st, 2019 Entries= *Routine by *Shooting Stick by *'Danger Close by - Winner' }} |-| Feedback= Week 131: BFFS Prompt: Everybody needs a friend. Chief had Cortana, Holmes had Watson, Mettermeyer and Reuental, that tree Bob Ross is painting. The objective of this week is to show the strength of friendship between two friends, however you want, in 1000 words. Start Date: April 2nd, 2019 End Date: April 8th, 2019 Entries= *Around the Block by *Two of a Kind by *Unexpected Reunion by *'The Onyx Chronicles/(Almost) Nowhere to Run by - Winner' }} |-| Feedback= Week 132: Post-Human Rights Prompt: Time for a change of pace. Some of you may remember a few years ago 343i advertised a position by asking for an essay exploring the topic of the Mantle. For a very special weekly, we're looking at that again. The topic of this essay are smart A.I., and the morality surrounding their creation, use, and then decommission. Is it humane to use a living brain to create a machine, at the expense of human. Is it enslavement to force this post-human into service? When that machine has serviced its purpose, and is no longer functioning, is it decommissioned, euthanised, or even murdered? These are all topics you can argue for, against, or both sides. As a special, this weekly is capped at 10,000 words, but you do not need to hit that limit. You also have an extended period. It is to be done in an essay style format. Start Date: April 12th, 2019 End Date: April 29th, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *The Study of Smart AI (TPF) by }} |-| Feedback= *The Continued use of Smart AI in UNSC Service by **While I didn't look for something created as an in universe setting, your work was certainly better for it. Of the two, this was a much more focused, with a direction it maintained from start to end, and gives a great insight to the UNSC's continued military use, and requirement of A.I.s. *The Study of Smart AI (TPF) by **While undoubtedly the more metaphysical of our two essays, I feel that it lacked the laser focus of the previous essay, and while it undoubtedly delves into a much heavier topic, the execution of it is somewhat lacking. Week 133: Microfiction for Big Heroes Prompt: This week, we're doing Microfiction! For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of it (also known as drabble), it is 100 words to express a story in it's entirety. Your story must have setting, at least one character, some kind of conflict, and a resolution. Other than that, the rest of it is for you to decide. Any entries over 100 words will be disqualified. Start Date: May 1st, 2019 End Date: May 6th, 2019 Entries= *'Shell by - Winner' *Faceless by *Exposed by *Sacrifice by *Faith by }} |-| Feedback= * Fools (TPF) by **My main feedback for this is that it didn't really seem to fit the category, of a story with a beginning and a conclusion. It just feels like an acted out scene, and it also feels like, in order to complete the scene, something was cut, because some of the dialogue doesn't seem to have context, particularly the last line of dialogue. *Shell by **A really great entry giving the after effects on battle, and its ongoing effects. A deserving this winner *Faceless by **A good entry, and although I think it's a little ellipsis heavy, it was a great introduction to the Ballista project for me. *Exposed by **While it starts very strongly, especially getting dialogue down to a tee, and setting the scene really well, the last paragraph is probably the part that knocked it out of the running for this week's winner. The grammar and punctuation are a little off, so it reads in a very stilted manner. The second comma and first period are the parts that break that paragraph down *Sacrifice by **Its not often we get an entry about a canon character, but this one was certainly worthwhile! its got a great level of focus, the tone really works, but there's two parts that stick out. Injuredly isn't a word, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you might be thinking of a similar word, but its not coming to me at the moment. Also, the third sentence doesn't quite make sense. I don't know if it's supposed to be a run on, or if there's something absent, but it doesn't seem to work. *Faith by **Faith is a subject we don't see much of in Halo, or HF, but I really like this interpretation. In the face of absolute annihilation, Morgan simultaneously denies the existence of god, and makes a prayer to god, giving a great sense of duality. This is easily the runner up for the week, and a great entry. Week 134: Were it so easy Prompt: War is over! Except there's several billion dead, a few dozen worlds melted to glass, and an awful lot of bad blood. And now we've got new neighbours responsible for that whole war. Peace was never going to be easy, and being neighbourly even less. We're back to 1000 words this week, and your goal is to show Human-Covenant relations in a post-war era. The race, the context, and nature of the story are up to you, so long as it is post-war. Start Date: May 12th, 2019 End Date: May 19th, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *Forsaken by *Belong by }} |-| Feedback= **A good, and enjoyable read from start to end. This story takes a keystone moment of the war and really boils it down to a soldier's experience. Your army experience definitely shines through in the Marine's mannerisms and experiences, and it really illuminates a new viewpoint. *Forsaken by **Your writing is improving, and this is a great litmus test of that. You set the scene, you described the scenes and characters in great detail, the story had a defined start, middle, and end. A lot of the mechanics of writing are coming together. My only comment is that the speech given to the protagonist by the human feels somewhat... stilted. Like it doesn't quite fit with the scene or story. *Belong by **This was a novel take on the prompt, taking our opposing races far from the battlefields of old, to a very different battlefield. It's hard to critique this one as everything felt pretty solid, and was an enjoyable read.}} Week 135: A Time To Binge Prompt: here, taking over this Weekly! What a depressing galaxy our characters live in with no culturally-significant media to devour through, or, at least none that we actively discuss. With Game of Thrones coming to an end, maybe its time for us to stop bingeing and to let our characters binge themselves. 1000 words, as per usual; write about an in-universe cultural past time or activity that a character or characters enjoy indulging or taking part in. It can be a canon or fanon thing, however, I prefer it to be relevant to a society's popular culture: some form of media, fiction, activity, sport, etc. This should not be their occupation, nor something they have to for the sake of others. This is their fun time, for them, make the most of it. Start Date: May 20th, 2019 End Date: May 27th, 2019 Entries= - Winner' }} |-| Feedback= **Another excellent piece by Silver. This piece doesn't need much explaining in regards to setting, I think that would be called normality for Silver's pieces given his skill for creating anthological narrative shorts that simply stand on their own. Ricochet creates a nice piece regarding the life of a former athlete too injured to continue his sport but still in love with it nonetheless. It's a nice feel-good piece with solid grammar and solid description. This piece says what needs to be said and nothing more. A solid entry for this Weekly. Also liked that the protagonist was named Rico, as if short for "Ricochet."}} |-| Week 136: Happy Birthday! Prompt: In honour of the birthday of your benevolent overlord Bureaucrat Ajax 013, your goal this week is to celebrate the birthday of one of your own characters, in whichever method would suit them best. Whether their birthday is spent among friends, in isolation, or on the battlefield, even celebrating the birthday of one who passed on. You have 1000 words to celebrate with! Start Date: June 3rd, 2019 End Date: June 9th, 2019 Entries= *Welcome Home by *November Sixth by *Fireworks (IA Excerpt) by *Officer Entanglement (TPF) by *Confinement by *One Year More by *'Lost, Found, Lost by - Winner' }} |-| Feedback= **Jorge is the man. We really don't get to see that enough. But this is a great interaction between two men, spartans no less, followed by further family relations. Overall a great read reflecting on family and happiness. *Welcome Home by **A solid entry, with a good overall narrative flow. My main critique would be that some of the dialogue could do with some attribution and description. Is it Hall saying this? Is he angry, is he shouting? These work for setting the scene for the reader and placing them in the story. *November Sixth by **Well shit. I guess people died. Well, birthdays are never opportune times. We take a nose dive into Andra's mind with a vividly detailed story of how this has left Andra, and her reaction to the world around her. It also shows those little things that can turn it around. Over all, a great entry. *Fireworks (IA Excerpt) by **Sometimes people seem to miss the mark with Spartans, with them being high fiving dudebros. You certainly did not. The almost robotic, and methodical Spartan nature is excellently displayed, and well written conversation between two characters, something sometimes drawn on for too long, or broken. *Officer Entanglement (TPF) by **So, i struggled a bit with the present tense, more a personal thing than anything else, but I loved the dialogue between Sam and Mathilda, and the story elements and scenes existing purely in their minds. *Confinement by **As always, an enjoyable read, sitting us in the seat of a wayward Spartan the duplicitous ONI agent. As always, you paint a great picture of your characters, and frame the story in an excellent manner. *One Year More by **So, I'm not super familiar with the Maponos/Sirona setting, but thankfully you've not really steeped that story too heavily in that setting, which is always a good thing for these kind of short stories. The story does a great job of setting us in the world of these characters, with excellent and continuous uses of descriptive language gives the reader a solid vision of the story. overall, a solid entry. *Lost, Found, Lost by **A great bit of novel story telling, showing a Spartan's life, from their first brush with the Covenant, to their training, the first mission, and eventual reunion. The story has great pacing, and really shows a Spartans growth from start to present, and the effects on their life style. Pacing is spot on. }} |-| Week 137: Hammer of the Gods Prompt: MJOLNIR armour is cool. You can't deny it. Which brings us to this week. Your task is to create a suit of MJOLNIR as an article. For this, there is no limit to word count, the only requirement is that your suit as a history, a role, features, and notable use. However, there are rules *It must be canon. If I have to NCF your article, you will never hear the end of it *It must be MJOLNIR designed for a Spartan. No armoured dogs or I'm sending you to the bad place. *It must be original. Please no older articles or recycled articles. Start Date: June 17th, 2019 End Date: June 23rd, 2019 Entries= - Winner' *MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/GRD by *PRAETORIAN-Class Mjolnir by *COSSACK-class Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor by }} |-| Feedback= **A wonderfully composed article, that perfectly fits a MJOLNIR suit. Colourful history, a focused design, and components are all brought together to make a pretty deserving winner. *MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/GRD by **It feels that you may not have finished it, but lets go over what we have so far. The early steps of the articles are there, but the expansion, polish, and finish is missing. *PRAETORIAN-Class Mjolnir by **While a good entry, the article overall felt a little unfocused. Like it couldn't quite settle on a direction. Some of the paragraphs felt out of place, some of it didn't quite mesh where it was, and the 'design history' section probably could have been split with a 'features' section would probably would have cleaned it up quite a bit. *COSSACK-class Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor by **This was a really good job, and an excellently polished piece of work. There's tech there without going into babble, there's cool bits and pieces of tech, the suit has an interesting history and design, and a cemented role. My only criticism would be the volume of tech, especially the ones lifted off other variants }} |-| Week 138: Last Goodbye Prompt: Life is full of hellos and goodbyes. As this will be my last Weekly for the foreseeable future, we'll focus on goodbyes. Specifically the last goodbyes. Whether this is two trainees saying good bye as they prepare for augmentation, only for one to wake up, a soldier holding their comrade as their life ebbs away, and two brothers parting ways in the Blooding Years, or a mother waving to her son as he leaves on the last evac shuttle. Make it sad. Make it heartfelt. Bonus points if you make me cry, I dare you. Limit is an extra special 4000 words, however you don't need to meet that. Your story can be in any format you wish. Start Date: June 24th, 2019 End Date: July 7th, 2019 Entries= *'Gone by - Winner' *One Last Time (TPF) by *Recollection by }} |-| Feedback= **so another great entry on the saga of Sirona and Maponos, and a great entry overall. My main feedback would be the opening of the story felt much stronger than the tail end, which felt perhaps rushed? Or at least felt there was less attention given to it. *Gone by **The entry really drives up the oomph factor, with a really strong theme from beginning to end, and the toll of loss on a Spartan. The emotional impact feels real and visceral, and really gives the story that emotional edge. However, it is let down by some spelling and grammar errors (IE, "the alarm instead his helmet droning", "e’d liked it"). Despite these flaws, its probably invoked the best response in me, which is why it is this week's winner. *One Last Time (TPF) by **A difficult choice between family or friends, made all the more difficult by the Created messing stuff up. A great read of somebody's difficult choices leading to that final good bye. *Recollection by **I guess Deryck is getting the chance for a final good bye he might not have gotten. I think it may miss the topic of a last goodbye, but it certainly does tuig on the heart where it needs to. }} |-| Week 139: There’ll be Another Time Prompt: Hey it's D042 here to run this weekly after Ajax's stepping down, I figured I'd try my hand at this. Death, it inevitably comes for us all, sometimes peacefully in our sleep, sometimes...less peacefully. In the Halo universe people die, a lot, but some go out in a blaze of glory. For this week’s prompt, you must all satiate my bloodlust for dead Spartans (okay fine, non-Spartans too) and write me the best last stand you can. It can be for an existing character or a new one, in just about any conflict, all that matters is they die in the end, and do so in a defiant fashion. You wanna write it for the fight scene? Go ahead. You wanna focus on how they feel in their last moments, how they hope it's all worth it or just how much they hate someone? That's fine too, surprise me. Around 1000 words if you can. Start Date: July 11, 2019 End Date: July 21, 2019 Entries= ' (Winner) }} |-| Feedback= *Observation by : So, I really liked this piece, and I don't want the fact that it won by default to take away from that. As is the usual with Silver, this was incredibly well written. I really felt the panic and desperation in Lione's actions. The description of the combat was visceral and satisfying, and paired with the ending it really highlights how humanity's defiance would've left an impression on species like the Elites. Great piece, and a worthy winner. Week 140: Executive Order Prompt: The Halo-Call of Duty rivalry, a staple of arguments between middle school boys (at least in my experience), but wouldn’t it be great if we could all just get along? This week write me a story set in an action set piece that might be more at home in a COD setting. Super-spooky black ops? Do it. Attacking a launch facility held by *insert bad guys of your choosing here* about to launch an INKV? Be my guest. Get crazy, get over the top, get tacti-cool marines. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 words please. Start Date: July 22, 2019 End Date: July 28, 2019 Entries= *Going Dark by *Another Night on the Town by *'Follow the Leader by ' (Winner) }} |-| Feedback= *Midnight Storm by KingOfYou115: Okay, so I loved every single piece submitted this week and choosing between them was frankly agonizing. What stopped this one short is that my oppressive word limit didn't let us see the operation beyond the initial bits of it. Still, hitching a ride into the most secure prison ever on the outside of a ship to break someone out is very CoD, and I love it. Really would love to see how the rest of the story unfolds. *Epimetheus by : As per usual, Silver, for all his procrastination in writing articles, has given us another great piece. As you'll see with the other pieces, I was reduced to nitpicking in order to choose between these pieces. The action is visceral and hard hitting, and the sp00ky setting was great. I literally had to ding it because your Spartan didn't kill anyone and CoD's version of war has such little regard for human life its laughable. I feel if you're gonna do real well with week 141's prompt. *Going Dark by : Dudes in suits doing the murdering, I love it. Only criticism is that I guess that it seems kinda jumpy? The paragraphs are very short so it was a little confusing for me to keep up, that said I blame myself for my word count limit. Still really good stuff and another testament to the progress in your writing. You really really captured the over the top tacticool stuff I was looking for, and as I've said I've been reduced to nitpicking. *Another Night on the Town by : So, you went a kinda different route with this in how you wrote it. For the most part you achieve your goal, the action is tight and frenetic. That said, I got a lil confused with it as the frenetic nature of the writing made it somewhat hard to keep up and it didn't come off as CoDish as I'd have liked. Again, I've been reduced to nitpicking, I am sorry. This was a really good piece, and I can't wait to see more from you. *Follow the Leader by : Don't you have a novel to write? Who told you to haul off in here and write this, we have to know what happens to Andra, Simon, and Cass! In all seriousness, I really liked this, obviously the ending took some major cues from CoD itself, but it captured the over-the-top-ness pretty well and the action was nice. The mysterious villain in evil looking armor flanked by shadowy mooks executes a perfect trap on the unsuspecting good guys? Love it. What really gave it that tiny edge above the others is that it told the complete story without feeling rushed at any point. Honestly this was hard, you guys are all quite good at this. Week 141: Wax on, Wax off Prompt: here, hijacking the weekly while D042's off being cooler than me. This week, we ditch the weapons and keep it simple - our prompt this time is about hitting things. I'm after a thousand(-ish)-word long work that pivots around melee combat, whether that means an energy sword duel or a drunken brawl at a bar. Not to say that you can't have gunfights involved, just that the story hinges on a good old-fashioned brawl. Possibly an armed one, at least. Start Date: July 29, 2019 End Date: August 4, 2019 Entries= *Catharsis by *Beast meets Beast by }} |-| Feedback= Archives *2016 entries *2017 entries *2018 entries Category:The Weekly